Chapter 76
After feeling satiated, Wang Lu left the Misty Peak and rushed to the Four Divisions Peak, just in time to see that it was already crowded.
Of course, that description wasn’t too accurate. The entire population of the Spirit Sword Mountain, including Inner and Outer Court disciples, senior generations who were cultivating in seclusion, and even the workers at the Carefree Peak, all of them could not even reach a thousand people.
It was just that the Four Divisions Peak Plaza where the crowd gathered was indeed somewhat small. Thus, with just a few hundred people, it already appeared overcrowded.
Of course, no matter how crowded it was, for a red and white robed disciple, the square would have a reserved place for him. And sure enough, when Wang Lu came to the front of the square after squeezing through the crowd while shouting “excuse me”, a row of seats had already been neatly placed there.
That was the special spot for the Spirit Sword Sect Successor Disciples, it was just that… As always, there were four seats there. However, currently, there was only one person sitting there.
The girl dressed in a long and colored gown greeted him with a brilliant smile.
She was the Successor Disciple of the Fourth Elder, nicknamed little Liu Li. Real name… unknown. She had entered the sect several years earlier than him. Right now, her cultivation had almost reached Foundation Establishment, however, the Fourth Elder insisted her to reach the Foundation Establishment first before she practiced the Brilliant Sword Heart.
Wang Lu knew little of this so-called Brilliant Sword Heart, but in short, this Successor Disciple and him were slightly different, that was, she was a genuine sect elite.
Unfortunately, even after entering the sect for more than two years, the two people didn’t have enough interaction. Occasionally, they would meet at the entrance, and the two nodded to acknowledge each other—that was it.
In addition to little Liu Li, the sect has two other Successor Disciples. Unfortunately, since he entered the sect more than two years ago, he had never seen these two people.
It was said that the oldest was the Successor Disciple of the Third Elder Fang He, who wandered outside all year round, never wanting to come back.
The other one was the Successor Disciple of Daoist Master Feng Yin, who had entered the sect around the same time as little Liu Li. However, that one cultivated in seclusion all year round like a tuberculosis patient that couldn’t go outside. Listening from the other Martial Brothers and Sisters, where they mentioned her just in passing, she seemed to have amazing talent that was almost unrivalled in the entire Nine Regions; her cultivation level was even higher than little Liu Li.
It seemed like the other two wouldn’t come during today’s gathering, but Wang Lu could care less. He casually took a seat, sipped a mouthful of tea provided on the nearby small table, and then waited for the Sect Leader’s appearance.
However, just as he sat down, he suddenly heard an old voice coming from the front.
“Very good, everyone’s here, let’s get this meeting started.”
When he looked up, he saw the Heavenly Sword Hall Elders had already sat cross legged in midair before the square.
Wang Lu nearly sprayed out the tea that was still in his mouth while inwardly exclaiming, “What the hell! Are all of them waiting for me to come!?”
“Aren’t you too unprofessional as a Sect Leader!? As a leader, you can always come late, at least you can come when all the others are present! But now, you came too early, so how would you get other people’s respect?”
In addition to Wang Lu, other people didn’t care too much about this problem. After waiting for a moment, Daoist Master Feng Yin went straight to the point.
“Today, you are all summoned to come because there is an important task that needs to be arranged. It concerns with the disciples’ cultivation. For the details of it, I will let Elder Liu Xian explain it for all of you.”
Sitting on the left hand side of Feng Yin, the Spirit Sword Sect Reward-Giver Elder, Liu Xian, said, “This is an announcement pertaining the experiential learning for new disciples. In order to further strengthen the Spirit Sword Sect’s talents and team building, and improve the comprehensive strength of the disciples, very soon, the Sect would send the new entry disciples out on an experiential learning task. The plan for this have already been studied by the Elders of the Heavenly Sword Hall. It is as follows…”
Just by listening to the front part, Wang Lu could not help but spray out the tea from his mouth.
“What exactly was this weird style of announcement!? I seem to have heard of it somewhere!?”
Seeing Wang Lu was having an intense doubt, a certain foreign elder who was sitting cross legged in midair very considerately passed on the explanation through the secret sound transfer method to Wang Lu: “This is the movement to write things in vernacular that was put into effect several years ago internally in the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals. Don’t you know it? Indeed, you didn’t attend this plenary meeting… In short, the decision is to discard those pompous writing style and vigorously promote the vernacular. Especially concerning the records about the Immortal Cultivation Method, it is important to show vernacular writing to make it easy to understand and accurately describe its point. Thus, the new generations of disciples would have a more easy time to train and so on. And as one of the five top sects in the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals, the Spirit Sword Sect should strive to be a good example. Therefore, several years ago, the Spirit Sword Sect started to use vernacular in official documents and the likes.”
Without the need for his Martial Uncle to explain further, Wang Lu had already profoundly understood the connotation and significance of this movement. In short, because there was peace for over a millennium, The Union of Ten Thousand Immortals was bored and wanted to do something to pass their time…
Before long, Elder Liu Xian had finished the announcement, however, the disciples on the square were already whispering to each other—they all revealed an excited look.
Even Wang Lu could no longer spare his thoughts on any vernacular writing movement, but instead fell into deep thought.
The experiential learning program that was planned out by the Heavenly Sword Hall Elders, in simple terms, was to let the all the disciples below the middle-level Foundation Establishment Stage to descend the mountain and wander around so that they could gain experience and strengthen their cultivation.
The scope of this experiential learning was—to no one’s surprise—within the Blue River Region. The Blue River Region was the defacto Spirit Sword Sect’s sphere of influence, even though the sect has always been negligent in managing it. But if they left the Blue River Region, regardless of where, they would enter the boundary of the other sects and all kinds of trouble would emerge, which would give them a very big headache that they could not put up with.
However, they didn’t descend the mountain to play; the Second Elder Liu Xian very clearly laid out their task: Each disciple must write at least five thousand characters report about the experience that they got in the experiential learning. The quality of the report would directly affect their sect points. No need to mention if it was high quality, but if the quality was too poor… there would be no upper limit on the point penalty.
The sect didn’t set the mandatory topic for the report, but instead gave a suggestion for reference: on the relationship between mortals and Immortal Cultivators.
This topic was too wide and also excellent. The Nine Regions continent was vast and boundless, but overall, it consisted of the Immortal Cultivation World and the mortal world; with the mortal world as the majority. The Immortal Cultivation World seemed aloof and remote, placing itself above the mortal world, yet without the mortal world, the Immortal Cultivation World would have no root… But the truth was that, not many cultivators truly realized the real relationship between the two worlds.
The big problem lied on those youngsters and young girls who entered the sect not too long ago. Because their cultivation time was still short, they still have worldly desires and low cultivation level; if they wanted to successfully complete this experiential learning, their ability was still insufficient. In such a condition, the time for the experiential learning was exceptionally important.
As a result, the time set for this experiential learning was very long: a year.
However, to Wang Lu, this was not the key issue.
The key issue was: with this activity, he could finally legitimately descend the mountain, and could finally…
Visit his home.
——
Actually, when the Heavenly Policy Hall devised the plan, they had actually already considered this context. By letting them descend the mountain to study the relationships between the two worlds, the sect also wanted them to use this opportunity to cut off their ties with the mortal world.
They have to do it because the Immortal Cultivators and mortals walked on a different path. The main difference between the two worlds was actually not on the difference in power, but lifespan.
Even just a Foundation Establishment cultivators would have a lifespan close to two hundred years, Xudan Stage cultivators would have three hundred years, and Jindan Stage cultivators would have four hundred years—these were just the minimum! And the disciples taught by an ancient sect like the Spirit Sword Sect would have a solid foundation and comprehensive ability, thus, their life expectancy was far higher than the average cultivator! And now, these Qi Cultivating disciples have already possessed one hundred and fifty years of lifespan. In this case, there was an issue that would inevitably arise.
The death of their mortal loved ones.
Thus, this experiential learning was also a chance for the disciples to say goodbye to their loved ones in the mortal world. Unfortunately, this chance was limited to those disciples who came from the Blue River Region. After the announcement of the plan, this was the main topic of conversation between the disciples.
“Okay, the time for your descend is next month; you have less than a month to prepare, so be well-prepared. Especially those newest disciples, you guys must intensify your cultivation. The world down there may not be as easy and simple as up here.”
After adding some simple matters that required the disciple’s attention, Daoist Master Feng Yin declared that the meeting was adjourned. Some of the disciples became animated in discussing this, while some others lost their interest. Wang Lu himself didn’t have too strong of a reaction; he just felt that it was good to have an opportunity to visit his home village and family.
As for that report… Hahaha, when was a professional adventurer ever afraid to write a report? Without waiting to have a year of experience, even right now, Wang Lu could pick up a pen and easily compile a content-rich report out of nothing.
Thus, thinking about Blue River Region’s Great Ming Country’s little mountain village northeast of the Dog Ear Mountain in the Marquis County of the Eastern Way Prefecture, his heart was gradually filled with nostalgia.
He was too lazy to think about cutting the mortal world’s ties; he just knew that he would soon come home… anything else was irrelevant.
——
After the meeting, Wang Lu went back to the hut, where he saw his Master sitting in the living room, quietly drinking some liquor. It was still the same spirit wine worth five hundred spirit stones. If this was just like any other day, Wang Lu would’ve immediately openly ridiculed her. However, today he was on a good mood, so he was too lazy to care about her antics.
Seeing Wang Lu entering the hut, the Master loudly greeted him, “Yo, not bad, you’ve succeeded in your sword practice?”
Wang Lu was taken aback. “You can see this?”
“Humph, practicing swordsmanship and cultivation is different, and their dispositions are also different. Just now, I noticed that you have a different disposition than usual.”
How could Wang Lu believe her crap; he loudly sneered. “Tell me the truth.”
Wang Wu confidently said, “Actually, I passed by when you were training with Aya.”
“Damn! Then your previous boast was just fart! Forget it, in short, I’ve already surpassed your requirements. Now, can you tell me the fourth level?”
“Surpassed your ass! You want the fourth level? Didn’t you just complete the third level of Non-Phase Sword Art?” Wang Wu seemed angry that the rock wouldn’t turn into gold. “Didn’t you listen to that retarded Sect Leader’s words that soon all of you little bastards are going down the mountain to do experiential learning; do you think it is a vacation trip? Do you think your insignificant skill can run amuck in the Nine Regions?”
Wang Lu immediately came to his senses and became somewhat embarrassed. “Master, you’re right, your advice is truly enlightening. I really shouldn’t have forgotten that the road to Immortality is a long one because of a little insignificant progress. In the huge Nine Regions, one should always strive for the better, above the sky, there’s always another sky…”
This heartfelt words only made his Master feel terrified; the slight tipsy feeling that she had immediately vanished into thin air—naturally, this drinking-immortal-wine-to-raise-the-qi became no different than feeding the dog.
“What… is wrong with you?”
Wang Lu’s countenance immediately changed. “Master, this disciple is so poor, shouldn’t you support me with money, hahaha?”
“… Where would I have the huge money for you!? If it’s a huge stone, perhaps I still can!”
Wang Lu no longer beat around the bush. “Sometime ago, you seized all of the belongings from that jackass Zhifeng; don’t tell me you’ve already sold them all.”
“Ridiculous!”
Currently, Wang Wu was certainly not penniless. With how much she was worth right now, she could easily afford that five hundred worth of immortal wine while still putting a poking-fun-at-a-pig look; she then raised her head and contemptuously looked at Wang Lu.
Wang Lu once again turned one hundred and eighty degrees; he immediately kneeled on the floor and embraced his Master’s thigh. “Boss, we’re friends right?”
“Let go of me!”